In what California Faculty Association leaders called an “agonizing” decision, a slim majority of union members voted Thursday to accept furloughs in an attempt to avoid layoffs across the 23-campus California State University system.

“The choices were frankly awful,” said John Travis, a political science teacher at Humboldt State University who leads the CFA bargaining team. “Many of the faculty voted `yes’ because they wanted to save classes for their students and jobs for their colleagues, even if they had to make a personal dollar sacrifice.”

CFA union members voted to approve furloughs by 54 percent. The decision by the union, which represents 22,000 faculty members across the system, comes as CSU officials try to close a $584 million shortfall.

The furloughs will amount to a 10 percent pay cut.

Roughly 68 percent of union members took part in the vote and the results were announced Friday during a CFA press conference.

Despite the union’s decision, furloughs will not necessarily prevent layoffs, university officials said.

“A guarantee that the furloughs mean no layoffs has not been made,” said CSU spokesman Erik Fallis. “Universities are being asked collectively to cut another $190 million out of their budget and the university is shrinking its enrollment over the next two years. So all of that may shrink the work force.”

In addition to Thursday’s furlough vote, nearly 80 percent of voting union members gave Chancellor Charles B. Reed a vote of “no confidence.”

“He has refused to wage a public fight to save CSU funding,” CFA President Lillian Taiz said of Reed. “He has run the university very, very close to the bone, even in good times. Really, what we’re doing is dismantling the whole system.”

In a statement, CSU officials said the “no confidence” vote did not accurately reflect the sentiment of all employees.

“This represents a fraction of our overall faculty, and right now we need to focus our efforts on trying to serve as many students as we can while maintaining the quality of our institutions, and faculty’s frustration should be directed toward policymakers in Sacramento,” according to the statement.

Specific details of the furlough program haven’t been discussed yet, although Reed announced a 5 p.m. July 28 deadline to finalize the agreement.

Fallis said the furloughs will save about 22,000 course sections, or 15 percent of all classes, that would have otherwise been canceled.

At California State University, Dominguez Hills, where the state-wide budget crisis will translate into a cut of $20 million, furloughs could go into affect as early as next month.

“(The cuts) are system-wide, but of course it affects us to,” College President Mildred Garcia said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, in the fall, students will see less of everything. It’s just horrible.”

The furlough program would come as two unpaid days each month for one academic year. It is expected to save the CSU system $275 million.

“The faculty vote to negotiate furloughs will help to save jobs, preserve employee health and retirement benefits, and ultimately, allow us to better serve students,” said CSU Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, Gail Brooks, in a statement. “We are facing a financial crisis, and need to move forward to reduce our employee costs.”

As California lawmakers grapple with a $26.3 billion deficit, the legislature accepted a budget plan early Friday morning that would make deep cuts to state funded programs, including slashing $9 billion from public education. The California Assembly accepted the plan around 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.

On Tuesday, the CSU Board of Trustees approved a $672 increase in student fees, the largest increase in the system’s 152-year history. The fee raises are expected to generate $236 million for the university. A third of that money would be set aside for financial aid.

Taiz, calling the symbolic no confidence vote “serious and damning” laughed when asked if she thought the vote translated in the CFA’s desire for Reed to resign.

“Many faculty believe the time may have arrived for fresh leadership,” she said. “The chancellor has been here for nine years and the CSU budget has been cut repeatedly during that time. Maybe its a signal that its time for a change.”

Clare Weber, an associate professor at the Dominguez Hills campus who chairs the sociology department, said the Carson school has been hit hard by the cuts, since it doesn’t receive as much funding based on full-time students as some other CSU universities get from the state.

“Dominguez Hills is hit doubly hard in many ways,” she said. “A huge percentage of our students are part time. It takes more students to get funding for one full time equivalent student.”

About 13,000 students attend the university.

Weber added many faculty members were frustrated over what they believed to be a lack of willingness CSU official’s had in negotiations.

“That says a lot,” Weber said of the no confidence vote. “We wanted a clear sense of if there would be layoffs anyway. We didn’t get that. There are issues of work load and how much we can take on that many faculty felt weren’t addressed by CSU leaders.”